CARP Halton Chapter Update – January 2012.

Article posted February 6, 2012

Our first meeting in 2012 was very well supported with approximately 110 members and their friends in attendance. Your Chapter volunteers are delighted with this response and we will strive to continue with topics for our future meetings that will maintain this level of interest.

In response to the increasing attendance we will be making changes to the room layout so that we can more easily accommodate everyone. As our numbers continue to grow we will also be actively looking at options for meeting these needs. One option that we are discussing is holding the same meeting on two different nights. For example once in Burlington then in Milton. This option would allow our members in Milton more opportunity to attend who might otherwise be unable to do so. To do this however we need more volunteers. Possibly a couple of people in Milton who would be willing to help. If anyone is willingto help please let us know. Please call Tom at 905-319-7345 or send us an email to [email protected] 

For our January meeting the theme was “Eat Well, Get Active, Live Better.” Our featured presentation was from the Health and Stroke Foundation. A brief summary of the material presented can be found under the title “Eat Well, Get Active, Live Better” on this webpage. Represenatatives from GoodLife Fitness and Home Instead Senior Care also provided an outline of their services which contributed to a sucessful evening. GoodLife Fitness and Home Instead are CARP Affinity partners. Information about both of these can be found on the main CARP webpage. .

In the discussions around these presentations a number of interesting ideas were put forward that we will be actively pursuing in the next few weeks. These are:

  1. Caregiver support and training: What is out there? Home Instead expressed an interest in working on this with us. We will be working with them to explore this issue and to develop a “seminar” that we could periodically offer to our members and the community.
  2. CPR refresher course. A number of members expressed an interest in having such a course and we will explore options for doing this.
  3. Emergency Room Expectations: Outside of medical attention, what should you expect when you arrive at the ER? What does the hospital staff expect of you when you arrive at the ER? We will be contacting the four hospitals in our region to see how we might tackle this important question.

We will keep you informed as we work on these ideas. Ideally we would like members from each of the communities to engage in these initiatives with us. Please let us know if you would be willing to do so.

We have been very encouraged over the past few months with the increased interest in our Chapter and the growing attendance at our monthly meetings. If you have not already done so please consider attending one of our meetings and finding out what we are doing on your behalf. The more our Chapter members get involved with seniors issues the stronger and more relevant our Chapter will become.

Please remember that we would always like to hear from you. You can send us an email to the address above or please feel free to phone or speak to anyone of the Chapter volunteers at our meetings.